


Just a Few Small Bruises

by karrenia_rune



Category: Highlander: The Series
Genre: Action/Adventure, Crimes & Criminals, F/M, crime-caper
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-03
Updated: 2012-06-03
Packaged: 2017-11-06 18:13:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/421773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karrenia_rune/pseuds/karrenia_rune
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He should be accustomed by now to Amanda's infrequent visits and her need to drag him into whatever scheme she has up her sleeve, but every time it's something new; at least the novelty comes as a welcome surprise.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just a Few Small Bruises

**Author's Note:**

  * For [naavan](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=naavan), [navaan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/navaan/gifts).



Disclaimer: Highlander: the Series belongs to Reissuance pictures, Panzer/Davis Productions as do the characters that appear here or are mentioned; they are not mine. Written for naavan’s request in the 2012 Mulitfandom Not Ready for Prime Time Challenge and features Duncan MacLeod and Amanda Dariuex.

“Just a Few Small Bruises” by karrenia 

Whenever Amanda showed up on his doorstep was always an occasion for breaking out the champagne and for watching for trouble following along in her wake, but nevertheless he welcomed her arrival as infrequent as they were. 

Duncan ushered her into his boat house docked along the west side of the river Seine with the back drop of brilliantly lit expanse of the city of Paris. He did not ask her any questions, yet, not until he had poured and served the champagne and were both seated comfortably on the sofa in his living room.

After the pleasantries were dispensed with, Duncan figured now was as good a time as any to start asking questions, which he did with his customary bluntness.

“So, what do I owe the pleasure of your company?”

For her part Amanda knew that her arrival had a tendency to evoke all manner of responses in men, especially this one. Duncan MacLeod was many things, friend, lover, warrior, gentleman, and above all a confidante. She, on the other hand, thought of herself as tumbleweed floating with the winds of fortune, not one for putting down any sort of permanent roots, and thus the need for her comings and goings. 

However, with everything that had happened to her recently, just now she had a need of a place to crash she knew that she could trust MacLeod to provide her with one, although he would ask questions and she had tentatively prepared a few explanations that would more than likely lead to more questions.

“Can’t one old friend look up another old friend without the engaging in the third degree?”  
Even as the words left her mouth Amanda realized that she was going into her customary defensive conversational style, still, as much as she might need his help to elude the pursuit that was after her; she just could not let a life-time of evasiveness go that easily.

“Amanda, this is me. Come on, whatever’s bothering you it would be best to simply have it out and then we’ll take it from there.”

“Duncan, you know I love you, right? And no matter what you’ll always have my back?” she replied.

“Of course,” he simply replied as if there were never any question that he would do so.

She heaved a sigh and reached up to reflexively finger-comb the fingers of her left hand through the strands of her raven-black hair before she would reply, and when she finally did they came out in a breathless rush.

“It’s like this. I was on the trail of a really big score, we’re talking enough to make the pay-outs pay of several Fortune 500 company CEOS jealous.”

This time Duncan heaved a sigh of his own. “I figured it would have to be something like that.” Why diamonds?”

“I’m certain that you’ve heard the saying that diamonds are a girl’s best friend?”

“I have. And there must be easier ways of acquiring those semi-precious stones than by stealing them.”

“Well then,” she exclaimed shifting her seated position on the sofa to place a bit of physical distance between them, as she placed her hands on her hips. “I’ll thank you not to pass judgment on how I choose to live my life, but I am very fond of this thing called life and I would very much prefer to continue doing it! Preferably with my head firmly attached to my shoulders.”

“Is another Immortal after you?” Duncan asked warily.

“No, no,” she replied. “But I did manage to piss off the wrong sorts of personalities, if you know what I mean, and now they’ve got people out searching for me.”

“What do you need from me?” he asked.

“A place to lie low for a while, and your help.”

“The first you know you’ll have, the second you will understand if I reserve judgment on this; at least until I’ve heard everything.”  
**  
Elsewhere a black van with tinted windows and a smudged license plate was parked just within walking distance of the front door of the MacLeod residence, and within its confines a hushed but heated conversation was taking place. “I don’t care whose fault it was that she got away, I want this problem fixed yesterday!” one man said. 

“You know what they say about thieves….”” the other replied in a much more sheepish and defensive tone of voice.

“No, I don’t know. Why don’t you enlighten me!” the other shorter but much more elegantly dressed other replied as he folded his arms over his chest and stiffened his spine in order to both appear taller and make his presence felt.

His subordinate, for that was he was despite his advantage in height cringed even further into his seat and wondered if he should risk further incurring his boss’s legendary wrath, but continued anyways. “They always return to the scene of the crime. In point of fact, I figure that we’re wasting our time following her and call off the man-hunt.”

Trent Davis knew that he was angry, extremely angry and that his associates and business partners and knew that whenever he was angry enough he’d begin to rant and rave; however at the moment he did not much care. 

He wanted someone or something to yell at, his assistant, Carlos Gomez simply happened to present. “Oh, is that so? Instead, we should just wait for her to come to us and give her another shot at the diamond, which I might add is worth a proverbial king’s ransom?”

“Yeah, something like that, jefe.”

His boss, someone who had garnered a reputation for conducting both a legitimate business in the precious jewels, but who could simply not resist the urge to skim a little off the top, brushed his hand across his chin and considered the matter much more calmly than he had earlier. Weighing the pros and the cons of the situation, he regarded his aide and considered the suggestion. “You know, you just might have something there. We’ll leave, then, give the girl time to think she’s fooled us and then..."

“Give her enough rope to hang herself by,” Carlos added.

Davis nodded. “Exactly,” Drive, I want to begin to implement this new plan immediately.”

***  
Duncan took a sharp bend in the road with a little less than an a foot or so between himself and another motorist who was not exactly obeying the posted traffic lines and in turn seemed to take offense at the scrapping noise it caused; for his part, Duncan ignored him mostly because he his concentration was divided between paying attention to his own driving and fuming at Amanda. They had both known that after a certain amount of protest and equivocating that he’d agree to participate in of her schemes, it was like she was a lode stone and he was a lump of metal that would get drawn to her; not that he really minded so much, but he was fuming because he understood what was happening here did not necessarily mean that he had to like it.

For her part Amanda l leaned back in the passenger seat and hummed to herself, mentally going over the layout of the business offices belonging to Trent Davis, a layout she had long since committed to memory several weeks ago when she been conducting research on the jewel of India; a perfectly flawless rectangular -cut diamond the size of Duncan’s fist and a stone that according to its reputation once adorned the turban of majarah during the height of British colonial dominion in that region of the world. 

Aside from its historical value it also would fetch a cool million dollars on the free trade market. Amanda could not have said if she were pressed on the subject which it was more the incentive that drew her again and again to make the big score; maybe it was the challenge, maybe it was the thrill of the hunt, and the idea of possessing something that many would quite literally be willing to kill to possess. She just knew that she could not let this go, could not let it be.

If she could have pulled off this caper by herself she would have done so, but somewhere along the way in achieving her goal she had royally missed up and none Davis and his gang were out for her pretty Immortal head something fierce. Duncan would just have to grin and bear it, and see where it took them.

She had to admit, in the back of her mind, ‘While I dearly love the man, he can be an unbearable stick in the mind, from time to time.’  
**

“Is this the place?” Duncan asked as he pulled and parked the car near to the rear of a building fronting on a business district with the shadow of a water tower looming in the background. The place was deserted of merchants, pedestrians and others at this late hour of the evening and he took a careful look around, both out of instinct and out a growing sense that they were being watched.

“It is. It may not look like much from the outside but trust me; it’s pretty damn impressive on the inside. They guy’s got money, lots of it, some of its legit, but the bulk of it isn’t. Let’s go..” So saying she opened the door of 

Duncan’s Thunderbird and slid out. She approached the loading dock of the building and grasped the handle of a side door and began to yank at it, and after a few seconds it gave way. “It was rusted through when I first cased the joint, so I called around and got a quote to have it oiled, charged it to Davis, of course.”

“Of course,” Duncan replied “You do realize that so far this has been too easy.”

“Shush, don’t say that, you’ll just jinx everything,” Amanda replied.

“I don’t believe in luck.”

“I do, so be quiet,” she fired back. Now that she was here she could practically feel the weight and heft of the diamond in her hand. She was so close that she could almost smell it. Sometimes Duncan was too cautious for his good, yeah being cautious made for at least one tactic of keeping one’s head firmly attached to one’s shoulders, but it could also be a liability, failing to act precipitously because you erred too much on the side of caution.

She slid in through the now open door and, singaling for Duncan to follow her. So far so good, the corridor that led from the stock room and from there into the building proper was free of any waiting traps or guards. 

“Follow me,” she replied.

He nodded, not liking it but willing to let her take the lead for now. In the back of his mind he kept thinking that when it came to Amanda she had a tendency to be entirely too reckless, but she had been around the block much longer than he had and done this sort of thing more often than even she would willingly let on. She knew what she was doing, as much as he might take issue with it. 

They passed through the stock room without incident and without setting of any alarms and emerged into a lobby area with cameras, sofas, and a currently unoccupied receptionist’s desk.

“Why did you need me again?” he asked.

“For the company, for the novelty, for the fun of it, for smuggling out the goods when the time comes;” she rattled off as she quickly crossed over from the lobby and into the main office area, with Duncan following along in her wake.

He was just about to make an aggressive and frustrated reply to that when they both could hear the tell-tale sounds of many footsteps approaching, the heavy pile of the expensive burgundy carpet almost but not quite muffling their movements. “Show time,” Amanda quipped.

“Not amusing,’ Duncan griped.

At that moment a group of armed men entered into the hallway from doors along both the right and left of the branching corridors, in a rough horse-shoe shape, at behind and the top of the horse shoe was none other than Trent Davis himself. “Amanda, I presume. You’ve led us a merry chance, but this is where it comes to an end. We both know why you’re here and I hate to tell you that you were better off letting sleeping dogs lie rather than coming back for the rock.”

“You bastard,” Amanda muttered.

“Now, now, let’s not resort to name-calling. I’m a business man, whatever else my reputation may say about me. I’m willing to play fair, but that all depends on what your next move will be.”

“What do you mean by that?” Duncan demanded.

“I mean, since our last meeting, I’ve had time to think matters over, cool down and consider the situation objectively, and I believe that instead of resorting to violence, which is always so messy, I’m willing to cut a deal.”

Amanda considered this, quickly weighing the pros and cons of the offer, as she would have whenever offered a deal or a challenge of any sort, obviously the man was working an angle, but what kind of angle? And if so, what could she hope to get out of it? She wanted that diamond but was it worth the risk? One of the maxims that she had built her life around was that in order to yield maximum yield it would have to be by investing maximum risk. 

She darted a quick searching and significant glance over at Duncan who had seemingly found something entirely new to fume about, and he also appeared to be considering the offer.

“What kind of deal?” Amanda asked intrigued in spite of the fact that Davis’ half-dozen hench-men still held the business ends of .38 caliber guns pointed in their general direction. 

“Now you’re seeing sense, young lady.” Trent Davis shook his head and brushed his goatee with his left hand. 

Amanda had never liked that particular mannerism or that style of facial hair on a man and she did not much care for it now, but she was willing to avoid making a passing comment on it go under the circumstances. 

“I keep the diamond, that’s non-negotiable,” Davis replied.

“Not much of deal, considering it was stolen from me in the first place….”

“I stole it from you, what was that old saying about possession being ten percent of the law, young lady? In any case, that hardly matters now, does it? Here’s the deal, you agree to take a cut of its full black market value, less a handling fee, of course. 

Amanda was shaking and not from the cold, although it was chilling in the office building, something was obviously wrong with the air conditioning, no from a mingled sense of outrage and hysterics. “First off, do you honestly think that you can make me go away by buying me off?”

“Off course,” Trent Davis replied. “Money makes the world go round. It’s my final offer. Take it or leave it.”

Duncan considered the offer and the man who stood in front of him the way a scientist might study a specimen under a microscope, as if he were a bizarre entity, and while he could understand where the man was coming from he still did not expect this little caper of Amanda’s to come this end. “How do we even know for certain that the diamond is genuine or even if it were, that its worth as much as you claim it is? 

At his Trent Davis side one of the hench-man, a much taller and ganglier Hispanic man who held a gun in one hand and a PDA in the other tapped his boss on the shoulder and whispered in an under tone, words that were too hushed to make out clearly.

Trent muttered, and then shrugged before he turned back to face Amanda and Duncan once more.

“Mr. MacLeod you make an excellent point, it would seem I am dealing with a legitimate professional, you may come and examine the diamond, but my stated condition for letting this unpleasant problem go away stands.”

“I would agree to that,” Duncan replied, ignoring Amanda’s outraged expression.

“This way, please,” Davis invited and turned and led the way into an open elevator and then up a couple of stories to a luxuriously appointed office suite. He ordered his guards to remain outside while he ushered them into the office. 

On top of a marble table was a glass case protected by a laser grid security system. Inside was a diamond that sparkled even in the glow of fluorescent light bulb illumination.

Amanda sighed with longing and contented herself with one last long look at the gem before she planted herself in front of Davis and stared daggers at him. “Okay, what now.”

“Take a look for yourself, I may be a crook and bastard and someone with a reputation for anger management issues, but I pride myself on always delivering exactly as promised. I wouldn’t try to trick by substituting shoddy goods in place of the genuine article.”

Duncan approached the case careful not to come into contact with the lasers. It would hurt but as an immortal it would not be fatal, still avoiding that particular scenario just made too much sense. 

Davis motioned to his aide who was the only other member of his guards who had been allowed inside of the office and who at a signal from his boss pressed a button to deactivate the laser grid and a paneling in the case slide aside.

Duncan reached in and lifted the diamond out of its mounting, hefting it up in his hand in order to test its weight, cut, clarity as he could without more accurate equipment other than his own eyes, could find not a single flaw in it. If it was a hoax or even a gem something less than the touted Star of India, it’s still a beautiful gem. “How much did you say this was worth?” he asked as he placed it back in its case.

“About a cool million, and less the handling fee, I’d see you could expect to get about 7k. I think it’s a fair price for what we’ve all been through in the past forty eight hours,” Travis replied.

“Done,” Amanda replied.

“Then Carlos over there will provide you with the pay out,” Trent Davis replied. “I must say it was not entirely a pleasure doing business with you Ms. Amanda, Mr. MacLeod. I hope you will understand when I say that I never want to see either of you again.”

Amanda strode forward and slammed her fists down onto the surface of Trent Davis’s desk and looked him directly in the eyes and then as sweetly and coyly as she could possibly make her voice while keeping her cool,” Trust me when I say that the feeling is mutual.”

“Amanda!” Duncan exclaimed.

“Yeah, yeah, get the money and let’s get the hell outta here.” 

Carlos went over to a shelf and took down a briefcase and placed it on the floor and keying and shortly after keying an six-digit password opened it and began to removed wads of green backs.

Duncan figured that at this point he should not look the proverbial gift horse in the mouth; was willing to take the money and run, but still all in all, it had been a very strange night.


End file.
